a) Field of the Invention
The present concept relates to a system and method by which public utility districts, utility companies, and other power, natural gas and energy companies within the power industry can effectively acquire information to integrate, analyze, optimize, and utilize the respective energy supply, as well as position themselves within the market ahead of changing environmental conditions.
b) Background Art
This current embodiment was developed for the particular operating environment which exists in the area served by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and other areas which have somewhat similar operations (e.g. the Western Area Power Administration [WAPA] that operates the Hoover Dam). Further, much of the text available that describes this system and method was prepared with specific reference to the area served by the Bonneville Power Administration. Accordingly, it is believed that a clearer understanding will be obtained by relating this present embodiment specifically to the operating system in this operating area of the BPA and for convenience of the description, terminology and references will be made to the BPA and the practices in that area.
Also, the assignee, which is responsible for the development and implementation of system and method has adopted descriptive terminology. For example, the overall system is referred to internally by this company as “PowerBiz” (the trademark rights of which are being claimed by the Assignee) and other terminology adopted by the assignee will appear throughout the text.
However, it is to be understood that this embodiment is simply done by way of illustration, and these terms are not being used in a generic sense. Rather, the description of the system and method are intended to apply more broadly to other situations in environments where similar or related conditions would be present, and the elements or components having such designations (e.g. “SLICE Optimizer”) are to be interpreted more broadly.
Also, the term “BPA”, is intended not to refer just to the Bonneville Power Administration, but also to other companies or entities in the power industries which have operations sufficiently related to the present embodiment so that it will be applicable to such entities. Also, the term “Power Companies” is to be used in a broad sense to apply to any of the companies or entities which are engaged in the generation, distribution, use, and/or transportation of power, and more particularly, to those which are dealing in electrical power.
A description of the general operating environment of such power companies will aide to lay the foundation for further discussion.
Generally power in the Northwest comes from a variety of sources and levels. The largest provider of power in the Northwest is the Columbia watershed system. Other power generation sources include natural gas, turbine engines, wind, and solar power. Because the Columbia watershed provides an abundant source of hydroelectric power, the cost to produce this power is much less than other power resources. Consequently, the administrative authority, Bonneville Power Administration, wields considerable influence over the local power market.
The Columbia watershed consists of a series of 42 dams along the main rivers and tributaries. Not all of the dams have power generation capacity. Further, those dams which do have power generation capacity do not run all at the same time. The Columbia watershed system was initially built for flood control, irrigation, navigation, recreation, fishing, and lastly hydroelectric power. All of the components of the Columbia watershed system represent varying levels of competing interest for use of the natural resource. These competing interests include: farming communities located in the surrounding region requiring flood control and irrigation. Further, cities along the Columbia River require a minimum flow for navigation of ships to transport goods and services. Minimum flow is also required for fisheries and recreational activities. These competing interests limit the Bonneville Power Authority's ability to maximize the hydroelectric power capacity of the Columbia watershed system. Consequently much of the storage capacity may go unused.
Within the geographic region served by the Bonneville Power Authority are a series of municipalities, counties, and public utility districts (PUD's) which are essentially areas comprising an aggregate group of power users. Each municipality, county, or public utility district may have varying load requirements based on its own unique demographic characteristics. For example, one PUD may be comprised of industrial type power users, while another PUD may be comprised of residential communities. Thus the power load required to service these users varies based on characteristics such as time and quantity of use.
The BPA distributes the power to the respective power users including PUD's. These power users generally in turn sell the power to the consumer such as businesses and residences. The power may also be traded on the open market.
To alleviate the high overhead of managing such a complex power distribution and accounting system, the BPA developed an “energy product” to sell to the various PUD's. The sale of energy product is based on a public entitlement system. This privatized entitlement system is referred to as the SLICE entitlement system. The energy product is itself is referred to as a SLICE contract. Each qualified PUD has the option of entering into a long term SLICE contract entitling the PUD to a certain percentage of the Hydro electric power output from the BPA over a given period of time. It should be noted that the SLICE resource is but one of many power resources that might comprise a PUD's energy sources.
But, the SLICE product itself is predominantly comprised of hydropower generation resources. Like other hydropower resources, it is unique in that the present use of the resource influences how much of the resource is available in the future. For example, once water is released from a reservoir to generate electricity, that water is not immediately replaced. Nature replaces the resource through precipitation and runoff. Therefore, effective planning and forecasting of the SLICE resource is essential to the pud's long-term profitability.
The SLICE product is delivered and managed in the form of electrical power. The amount of electrical power a SLICE participant receives is referred to as the SLICE entitlement. This entitlement is not a fixed number or KWH's or MWH's, but a fixed percentage of the actual output of the SLICE System Resources (as defined by the BPA), and therefore is dependent on water conditions that occur in any given year. Also, the amount of SLICE energy delivered to a participant is not guaranteed, nor is the timing of power deliveries likely to match a participant's actual requirements over the course of a year. The BPA SLICE product has several unique characteristics.                1) A small portion of SLICE is generated from thermal plants. This portion covers the base load requirements of the SLICE participant, and is included in the minimum generation limit.        2) SLICE is also comprised of multiple hydro resources, meaning that as water is released from one hydro plant to generate electricity, the released water flows downstream through other hydro plants and generates additional electricity. The result of this downstream effect is addressed in the overall management of SLICE.        3) The BPA has ultimate control over SLICE and the energy generating components. The participants do not contract for a right to operate or control the BPA system resources (including it's reservoirs and hydro plants) but only contract for a percentage of the hydroelectric output generated by the BPA.        4) The BPA thus establishes and maintains for each participant a SLICE System Storage Account (SSA) for monitoring each participant's use and determining if the participant t is staying within the boundary limits set by the BPA for energy storage and release. The SSA is in essence a paper reservoir or pond. This paper-reservoir is a contractual storage account for each SLICE participant, which may or may not correlate to a physical storage account. The SLICE Participant is obligated to maintain its paper reservoir within its prescribed upper and lower bounds, bounds which change from day-to-day. At the end of each day, the BPA makes an accounting of the SLICE Participant's use of it's SLICE resource, and notifies the SLICE Participant of it's storage capacity or whether or not the SLICE Participant has violated any upper or lower bounds. BPA has the right to levy severe penalties if these bounds are violated.        
The participant may shape or configure its SLICE resource delivery so long as the rate of delivery of SLICE is between the maximum and minimum operating limits established by BPA. The participant's SLICE SSA (the paper reservoir) is used to track the accumulated difference between the SLICE power received and the participant's SLICE entitlement.
The advantage of SLICE to the participant is that they can control how this resource is used. A SLICE participant can decide to minimize the amount of SLICE energy delivered to increase the amount of storage in its paper-pond, and conversely, maximize the amount of SLICE energy and thus draw down the paper-reservoir. This flexibility allows a Participant to use the SLICE product and counter market price fluxuations. For example, if the market price is high, a SLICE customer can use SLICE energy in lieu of purchasing energy on the open market or they can generate excess energy and sell it. Likewise, if the market price of energy is low, a SLICE customer can reduce its use of SLICE energy and store the energy in its paper-reservoir until prices conceivably rise again.
The advantage to BPA is that they are relieved from the responsibility of meeting the customer's load. The customer has a greater degree of control of the power supply and the obligation to meet load. When the optimal use of SLICE results in deficits or surpluses, the SLICE participant must buy from or sell energy in the open market to maintain it's paper reservoir contractual SLICE obligations.
Beyond notification of the paper pond status, the BPA will not provide the SLICE users with additional real-time information. Thus, the burden of managing and forcasting load requirements versus power supply in the paper reservoir is placed squarely on the SLICE Participant.
The BPA has established a communication protocol to efficiently and effectively communicate SLICE status reports between the SLICE participant and the BPA. These status reports include maximum and minimum reservoir runs of the Columbia watershed. Also included are the BPA's load meter data for end user usage generally provided at the end of the operating day at hour 24. Because the load meter data is delayed information and is only delivered every 24 hours, the SLICE participants who buy and sell energy on the open market require real-time information monitoring the transmissions and communications of energy usage on a hour by hour basis. Thus they have developed their own proprietary load metering system. This proprietary load metering monitoring system is synchronized against the BPA end of day load meter information.
The SLICE information sent by the BPA also includes the SLICE boundary information in the form of an XML document. Each SLICE participant receives this information. After each SLICE participant has determined it's scheduled use of the SLICE resource, the protocol for communicating this schedule includes formating the schedule into an XML document for efficient portability back to the BPA system. How each SLICE participant performs this manipulation of max/min SLICE boundary conditions and generation of the schedule is unique to the individual SLICE participant.
Consequently, an unsophisticated SLICE participant might not schedule and utilize the SLICE resource efficiently thus finding itself in violation of an upper or lower paper reservoir boundary. If in violation the SLICE Participant will most likely be levied fines by the BPA. This system efficiently manages and utilizes the SLICE resource for these various SLICE participants, thus mitigating any management risks.